My two-cents worth and then some. An online journal by LP Brown.

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Political topics.

Multiplying Karma x 34

by on ·Crime and Punishment, Justice, Opinion, Politics, The Way I See It

The first time I cried tears of joy over an event involving a politician was on November 4, 2008, when Barack Obama was elected 44th President of the U.S. The second time was Thursday, May 30, 2024, when I saw the words “Breaking News – Guilty” appear on my television screen. Bold white letters on a blood-red background never looked so delicious.

While the jury deliberated for nine hours, I had refused to build my hopes that they’d come back with a single guilty verdict, let alone 34. I haven’t forgotten the disappointment and disbelief, the gut punch I felt on the evening of November 8, 2016, when the election results were announced.

As is my habit, my TV is almost always tuned to MSNBC. It doesn’t matter if I’m working on my computer, reading, or doing housework; my favorite all-news channel is always on. So, of course, I’d been following the hush-money trial of the wannabe dictator. On Thursday, when I learned that the jury had reached a verdict, I began hyperventilating like a Mega Millions ticket holder who realized she matched all the winning numbers.

During the time before the verdict was announced, I busied myself to calm my nerves. I watered my houseplants, dusted the furniture, grabbed the vacuum, and started vacuuming the carpet – for a second time that day while keeping my eyes on the screen. And fearful that there might be an acquittal or some other undesirable quirk of fate, I kept reminding myself of a familiar quote, “Expect nothing and be surprised.” That’s what I did. This typically positive thinker took a time out from optimism because I was determined not to be blind-sided again—no more Deja’ vu.

Over the drone of the vacuum cleaner, I thought I heard Ari Melber say, “Count one, guilty. Count two, guilty.” I turned off the Hoover and turned up the volume.

“Say what, now?” I said to the TV.

When Ari said, “Guilty on all 34 felony counts,” I let out a whoop and began jumping up and down like a holy roller shouting in a Baptist church. Suddenly, in my mind, I could hear the Isley Brothers singing one of my favorite oldies, Shout. “Throw your hands up and shout. Don’t forget to say, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.”

In a short time thereafter, the TV pundits begun opining about the sentence that could be rendered on July 11 – he could get probation, home confinement, imprisonment or something else. If people in the know are to be believed the outcome of this chapter could be another fluke in The Life and Times of Don-the-Con.

Every imperfect but right-minded component in my body screams, “Please, please, please, lock him up.” But then I rationalize. Imprisonment? That’s probably highly unlikely. How would they manage that – jail his secret service team with him? A Big Mac chance of that happening.

I have no choice but to do like everyone else does, wait and see what happens on July 11.

“If you can make it through the night, there’s a brighter day.” Thank you, Tupac, for the point of light.

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Playing the B’s like the Dozens

by on ·Politics

Playing the Dozens is a familiar term to many Black people, particularly the older generation. It’s a verbal game popularized in urban ghettoes and played mostly by black males back in the day. The participants try to one-up and insult each other using spoken creativity. The most potent offense often involves one opponent dissing the other’s mother. For example, “Your mother is so old she was the waitress at the Last Supper.”

Activist and Black Panther Party Minister H. Rap Brown wrote in his memoir about playing the Dozens, “We played the Dozens for recreation like white folks play Scrabble.”

I thought about the Dozens recently when Civil Rights lawyer and outspoken Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett delivered a backhanded clapback to far-right MAGA Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene after Greene insulted Rep. Crockett’s appearance during a House Oversight Committee meeting a few days ago when she said “I think your fake eyelashes are messing up your reading.”

Like many people, I am familiar with Greene’s uncouth, atrocious antics, but when I saw her latest stunt, my first thought was, OMG! No, she didn’t! And then I said to myself, “Georgia Gal, you messed with the wrong black woman.”

Rep. Crockett had had enough. She ignored the advice of former first lady Michelle Obama. We all remember her philosophy, “When they go low, we go high.”

Er, nope! Rep. Crockett did not go high. She responded in kind. Because I have the utmost respect for the gentlelady from Texas, I will say this in a way that I hope will not denigrate her:  without removing her earring, Ms. Crockett went straight up hood on the Georgian. She turned to Committee Chairman James Comer and said, “I’m just curious, just to better understand your ruling. If someone on this committee then starts talking about somebody’s bleach-blonde, bad-built, butch body, that would not be engaging in personalities, correct?”

The chairman seemed stupefied. And did I imagine it, or did I see Rep. Jamie Raskin stifling a smile?

Without breaking the House decorum rule, Rep. Crockett had coolly and indirectly let loose a swarm of B’s on Greene:  Bleached Blonde Bad Built Butch Body. Greene never saw it coming. She was dumbstruck. And although she would probably never admit it, those B stings will last a long time.

Rep. Crockett’s clever retort is all over the Internet. Songwriters have rhythmized the phrase. Podcasters, YouTube, and comedians are capitalizing on it. Esty sellers market the Bs on tee shirts, tank tops, coffee mugs, wine glasses, hoodies, pinback buttons, and who knows what else.

Although I don’t particularly like fanning the flames, I get sick and tired of disrespect, and I like it when I see someone get as much as they give. Thank you, Rep. Crockett.

And lest you think it’s a racial thing where African Americans are the only ones riding this B wave. Watch and enjoy this video.

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Resurrecting Uncle Tom

by on ·Opinion, Politics

I was wrong. Not many people would willingly admit that. The truth can smack them in the face like a Key Lime cream pie, and even while licking off the pastry, they’ll refuse to admit they were wrong.

I’m also opinionated. Anyone who knows me knows that. However, when stating my point of view, I usually feel confident that I am well-informed about my subject and not merely speculating.

Who doesn’t enjoy the ego boost of being right? I do as much as the next person, but my credibility trumps my ego. So, usually, before arguing a point, I fact-check. And sometimes, I learn more than I thought I knew about the subject.

For example, the other day, while on a social media site, I noticed that a politician (I’ll call him Doe, minus the John ) was strongly criticized after a TV newscast showed him kowtowing to a specific presidential candidate. People in the chat room were livid. They said Doe’s behavior was not only degrading but made him look like a genuine suck-up. I agreed with what folks were saying about him, and while enthusiastically adding my two cents, I referred to the subject as Uncle Tom. (Did some of you readers say, “Oh, no, you didn’t?) Yes, I did.

Bad move! One of the other commenters in the room checked me on my remark. She politely but dutifully informed me that Doe was not an Uncle Tom and added that calling him that would be insulting to Uncle Tom.

My fingers were positioned over the keyboard, preparing to type a humorous retort, but I changed my mind. Instead, after leaving the site, I did what I often do when challenged – I researched the subject. And I soon discovered that Uncle Tom (a fictional character from abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe’s anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin) was not the minion many people believe him to be.

Tom’s character is based on a slave named Josiah Henson, who became a minister after being introduced to religion. (Some of you readers are saying, “I knew that.” Good for you. I didn’t know it; if I did, I forgot it. So, I’ll continue.)

Henson was born June 15, 1789. As he grew older, his enslavers recognized him for his exceptional physical strength and leadership ability. That gave Henson some leeway that he used to his advantage. He was a clever fellow and had a sense of humor, too.

In 1830, Henson ran away from the plantation in Charles County, Maryland, to Canada. A few years later, he returned to the plantation and stole away his wife and children, bringing them to his new homeland. In the years following, the courageous fugitive led other enslaved people to freedom along the Underground Railroad.

In 1849, with the assistance of abolitionist Samuel Atkins Eliot, Henson published Uncle Tom’s Story of His Life: An Autobiography of the Rev. Josiah Henson. That same year, Henson met author and abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe.

Four years later, Stowe wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin to buoy an argument against the injustices and hideousness of slavery.

Stowe’s book was eventually adapted for theaters. Shrewd producers of stage performances, fearing they could not attract an audience for the theatrical production as written by Stowe, took liberty and fashioned minstrel shows based on the novel. Those shows where actors appeared in blackface diminished Stowe’s disclosure of the inhumanities of slavery. Instead, it made a mockery of it. In 1903, Edwin S. Porter’s film production of Uncle Tom’s Cabin further grossly distorted Tom’s character and embodied racial stereotypes. Those theatrical productions were instrumental in contributing to the negativity and the fable that encouraged black Americans to begin using the misnomer to slur other blacks who they felt relinquished their dignity to elicit the favor of influential Caucasians.

I’ve been familiar with the “Uncle Tom” slur all my life. I heard it used often during the Clarence Thomas/Anita Hill hearings and even more recently ascribed to Dennis Rodman and Kanye West aka Ye.

I know that name-calling is wrong. (Mother, rest your soul, you taught me that.) But I’ve never claimed to be perfect. Like every other flawed individual, I am sometimes judgmental, often opinionated, and an equal opportunity wisecracker. All one can hope to do in this crazy world is end up on the right side of wrong and keep educating oneself in the process.

As long as people remain ignorant of the truth behind Stowe’s main character, the myth of Uncle Tom as a model for negative racial stereotypes will persist.

I should not have been surprised to learn that soon after its publication because it exposed the horrors of slavery, Uncle Tom’s Cabin was banned in the Southern United States and Russia. In these contemporary times, it remains on the banned books list in some states. Lesson learned.

 

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An Open Letter to Nikki Haley

by on ·Political Humor, Politics, The Way I See It

Nikki Haley, you blew it, girl. But you know that, don’t you? That’s why you’ve been backtracking and trying to clean up your mess ever since the New Hampshire town hall meeting last Wednesday. Your evasiveness on that Civil War question so outraged the spirits of my ancestors that I could visualize them pursing their lips and shaking their heads.

How could a former governor of South Carolina, SOUTH CAROLINA, of all states, flub the answer to a question about the Civil War? Remember Fort Sumter? No, not the Alamo, Fort Sumter. Would you have responded the same way if, instead of campaigning for president, you were on Celebrity Jeopardy, and the final question was, “What was the cause of the United States Civil War?”

Joking aside, between you and I, we know you didn’t really flub it. You knew what you were doing. You were playing your cards right and dealing them from the bottom of the MAGA deck.

When asked about the cause of the Civil War, you mentioned freedom relative to the government’s role and how it would be run. But the “S” word, “slavery,” never slipped off your tongue. And then you tried to flip the script by asking the questioner what he thought caused the Civil War. Nikki. Nikki. Nikki. SMH

I hope you or one of your assistants is reading this, Nikki because I want you to know that it’s people like you who have turned this former political junkie against politics and shady politicians. Yes, I’m gradually weaning myself away from all things political. “What’s that?” you said. Of course, you don’t care. And I don’t care that you don’t care. But let me tell you about when I became interested in politics.

It was decades ago. Before I retired, I worked for a couple of lobbying firms. One day, my employer, a former Chicago State Senator, had me accompany him to Capitol Hill for a meeting with then-Senator Barack Obama. You remember him, don’t you? Of course you do. Some months after I met him, Senator Obama became President of the United States. That made my day but probably spoiled yours.

I enjoyed working at both of the lobbying firms. Shortly after I entered that profession, one manager told me they prefer to be known as a government relations office instead of a lobbying office. Apparently, “lobbying and lobbyists” get a bad rap. (That’s rap as in reputation, Nikki, not music. I’m just saying, in case you didn’t know.) I suppose that bad rap concerns PAC contributions and how they influence politics, right? Surely, you know all about PACS and Super PACS. But we’ll keep that on the down-low.

My position required that I visit the Capitol building and the six Senate and House office buildings on numerous occasions. I even rode the subway beneath the Capitol building, which shuttles senators and staff between their offices a few times. Although my trips to Capitol Hill were usually to retrieve bills from the document room, meet with Congressional staff, or deliver PAC checks, I didn’t mind being the gofer because I got to see and experience a side of the legislative branch of government that many folks don’t.

I think Capitol Hill is one of this city’s most beautiful areas, whether blanketed in snow or adorned in springtime by various beautiful flowers, plants, and trees. That’s why, to this day, I get so angry whenever I think about or see a TV news clip showing the January 6, 2021, insurrectionists climbing up the side of the building like an intrusion of cockroaches.

During my years of employment in government relations offices, I met many politicians besides President Obama. Some of the others I remember include the late Senators Ted Kennedy, Bob Dole, DC Mayor Marion Barry, House Speaker John Boehner, and Former Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin.

I’m glad that I’m retired and away from all things political. Who wants to be associated with that profession? And who would like to be president? Bad question. Strike that. I won’t say that politicians are to blame for all the things tearing this country apart, and I wouldn’t dare suggest that one particular party, sometimes described as the MAGA-ring circus, fueled the fire. Wink.

Even a blind man can see that the whole world is having a nervous breakdown. The detrimental effects of global warming and climate change are wreaking havoc on the environment. With its expensive robotic contraptions and elaborate devices, the technological revolution is further straining the relationship between the affluent and the disadvantaged. And whether the blame gets laid on the economy, social injustice, or the status quo, people everywhere have gone rogue and lost their freakin’ minds. Unconscionable souls embrace all things immoral, evil, and unlawful. Warfare, crime, and mass killings are escalating. Progress is regressing on women’s rights, civil rights, human rights overall, and racists are banning books and trying to whitewash black history. Jumpin’ Black Jesus! What next?

I’m closing this letter to you now, Nikki. I just had to get some things off my chest and remind you that God don’t like ugly; that includes lying and denying. Before I go, may I suggest some books for you to read? Nevermind that some of them are on the banned list:  The 1619 Project by  Nikole Hannah-Jones; Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Ibram X. Kendi and Jason Reynolds; and Without Consent or Contract: The Rise and Fall of American Slavery by Robert William Fogel

One last thing, girlfriend, and I’m done. Wasn’t it Will Rogers who said, “Everything is changing. People are taking their comedians seriously and the politicians as a joke?”

 

 

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Living in America: An Average Citizen Vents

by on ·Law and Order, Opinion, Politics

The following post was written by a Guest Author, Anonymous

Bear with me while I vent. Several hours ago, while listening to Keith Olbermann’s latest podcast (Countdown with Keith Olbermann), I fully realized the appalling potential danger the 45th president created for this country when he took classified documents from the White House.

If you are like me, you’ll feel stunned and outraged after listening to Olbermann’s take on how one depraved and treacherous moron may have set America on a path to subjugation or eventual destruction.

Consider how enemies of the U.S. have worked long and hard to infiltrate and access this country’s most profound, crucial secrets by hook or crook. And then think about the authoritarian wannabe treating the secrets as nothing less than copyrighted recipes that he could use for profit or to gain influence. Of course, his blatant disregard for democracy and this country is nothing new.

Numerous people who could have done something to prevent this national tragedy but did nothing must shoulder the blame. The list of the guilty is lengthy. If Merrick Garland had been forthcoming, he could have exposed the dilemma early on. Mueller, too was deferential. Even Obama could have brought 45 to court for defaming him with false wiretapping allegations. Anyone of them might have prevented what has become a national tragedy. Being submissive to people you know to operate on an entirely malignant, evil, self-serving path is morally costly and reckless. Perhaps it would have created bedlam if any of those who might have taken steps to prevent the tragic results had stepped up, but it also would have shown 45 that America and Americans of good conscious won’t tolerate his nonsense. So, the perpetrator pursued his mission, and it has come to this.

How many people do you suppose have been hired at Mar-a-Lago since 45 was in office and following his defeat? How many housekeepers? How many gardeners, cooks, cleaners, pool boys, janitors? You don’t think Russia, North Korea, or Saudi Arabia is smart enough to assign someone to infiltrate that place? It doesn’t seem unreasonable when you consider some of the sinister, underhanded stuff some of these countries have done in the past. Does it?

This country may never know the extent of the damage done until it’s too late to do anything about it. That’s what’s so creepy and so unforgivable about this situation. What a betrayal. And what an unforced error for those who may have prevented it.

America’s obeisance and submission to the wealthy, privileged whites, and powerful, especially when they espouse an ideology of supremacy and hierarchy, may become this country’s downfall. If the U.S. survives this trial by fire, the government must redouble efforts to make this country dedicated to equality, truth, and justice for all and stop allowing the wealthy and well-connected to play on a different stage.

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